Saint Thomas

Saint Thomas is one of the Virgin Islands in the Caribbean Sea, located in the US Virgin Islands together with Saint John, Water Island, and Saint Croix. In 1657, the United Provinces established a trading post on Saint Thomas, but Denmark conquered the island in 1666 during the Second Anglo-Dutch War. In 1672, the island was divided into sugarcane plantations, and the island depended on slave labor and the slave trade to develop. In 1666, the capital was established as "Taphus", meaning "beer halls", but it was renamed to Charlotte Amalie in 1691 to honor the wife of King Christian V of Denmark. From March 1801 to April 1802 and from December 1807 to November 1815, the island was occupied by the United Kingdom due to Denmark's alliance with France during the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. Hurricane, drought, and American competition caused for the sugar trade to decline, and slavery was abolished in response to the unrest of 1848. In 1917, the United States decided to purchase the island from Denmark for $25,000,000 in gold, eager to acquire a naval base from which it could operate in the Caribbean during World War I. In 1927, all residents were granted US citizenship, and the islands were granted territorial status in 1954. In 2010, the island had a population of 51,634 people.